September 11, 2014I don't get to Denver very often, but when I do we usually try and work in lunch at either City O City or Watercourse Foods. We had recently heard that Watercourse had gone totally vegan ( they used to offer some cheeses and eggs ) and had changed the menu quite a bit. I am happyhappyhappy to report that the changes are for the better ! The only thing missing was Jamie...he will love the changes too !

The reason for a Denver excursion this cold, rainy day ( is Summer over already ?! ) today was a trip to the gigantic mega Denver Coliseum Gem and Mineral Show with my son and daughter-in-law. Sara makes really cool custom jewelry with beautiful gems and polished stones and some exquisitely intricate wire-wrapping. She was hoping to find some nice cabochons and stones to create more unique pieces to offer on her website, Great Horned Owl Design. And wow....so many vendors...it was crazy ! I don't think we covered half of the territory...there was everything from teeny tiny highly polished gem stones, rough stones, beads, cabochons,geodes, petrified trees to complete skeletons of millions-year-old dinosaurs. Got an extra $98,000.oo kicking around ? Why, you could take home a ( headless ) 9 ft long skeleton of some sort of water-dwelling thunder lizard, reconstructed and freestanding with the help of iron supports for your convenience... no assembly required ! But Sara stayed focused and came away with some sweet little Mexican Opal cabs and a really deeply-layered Labrodite to play with. Check out her website, Like her on Facebook and visit her Etsy shop now and then to see what she's created :)

Here's what we had at Watercourse:

James got the Chipotle Hash. A hash of chorizo, blackbeans, sweet potato waffle fries, scrambled tofu and caramelized onions. The whole skillet was smothered with green chili, sour cream and avocado cream, and it came with ( not enough ! ) corn tortillas on the side.

Sara got the Sampler Basket, which featured Sweet Potato Waffle Fries, Fried Green Tomatoes ( we thought they were a little too firm ) and a few pieces of Fried Okra with Sambal Ketchup.

Here's what I got...the "Chicken" & Waffles. A corn and chive waffle topped with extra crispy tofu and syrup or gravy. I chose gravy. With extra gravy. I kept this picture larger than the others so you can see the textures in this dish ! The "chicken" was so good I asked if they made their own in-house 'chicken' or bought it, and was told it was tofu ( uh, like the menu sez ! ). After really looking at the pieces I could see that yes, it was a very firm tofu, rolled in some sort of fantastic breading and fried to perfection. The gravy was very rich and herby...I should have gotten a side of kale to dollop the extra on ! I brought home ( a little ) leftovers for Jamie and yes, he approves !